The worlds first hybrid table tennis blade, the XIOM ice cream AZX which has a unique carbon construction. This unique 7 ply blade has two different carbon layers: on one side of the blade is a ALC layer and on the other side is a ZLC layer. This has been designed and developed for maximum ABS ball performance. The Ice Cream blades are partnered with Xiom's very own Jeoung Youngsik. Blade composition: Koto-ALC-Limba-Kiri-Limba-ZLC-Koto

The build quality is super-high - nice finishing on the fiber layer, no blemishes anywhere I can see. The handle is wide, but fairly flat - it feels very comfortable to me, but it isn't as beefy as some bigly yuge euro handles. I'm happy to say that the wings are different to recent Xiom blades (e.g. Vega Pro) and the overall feel in the hand is excellent. Everyone's grip is different of course, so this is a very personal thing, but I'm glad Xiom have made this change.

Testing

I've put 9 sessions in with the AZX before finishing this review, 3 sessions each with 3 different setups. Initially I went with my current rubbers (QiJi, Moon Speed Special) to give a direct comparison to what I've been using recently. Then I switched to Rasanter R47 Ultramax on both sides in an effort to bring out the hybrid nature of the blade with a rubber I'm familiar with, and finally to Omega VII Pro on both sides.

Basic Speed and Drives

From initial reviews, I was concerned about the speed and if it would be too much to handle. Well, it's fast, but not insane. I'd put it slightly above a Viscaria, but noticeably below a MJ-ZLC.

The feel on basic drives is pretty sharp, but I've used harder Boll ALCs so it's not excessive. The ALC side feels a bit more "distant" than the ZLC - not hollow, but more of a "dry" feel for want of a better word. I didn't really notice a big difference in speed between the two wings here.

It's also pretty linear and easy to use, if you accept that the speed is generally high all the time.

Looping

When using more expansive strokes, you notice the big potential for power from the blade. Although there isn't excessive flex, it's simply fast. I found slow loops to be a little awkward because the blade just wants to go faster, deeper, more more and so on. It's very good from distance - you can play some massive strokes from 2m back, and the pace and spin result in some incredible bombs.

Looping is the time when the difference between the ALC and ZLC becomes really noticeable. The ALC side produces a meaningfully high arc in comparison with the ZLC. I was skeptical about this, but I have to admit that it appears to be a real feature of the blade. When looping hard, I can really load up the spin on the ALC side, but the ZLC goes much flatter and gives the impression of being faster (simply because it's a more direct path to the table).

Blocking, Flicks, Short Game

I found the blade to be medium stiff overall, which helps a lot when blocking. Add this to the sharpness of the initial feel and it works very well when blocking, if you can cope with the pace.

BH flicks are good - fast enough (obviously), direct, and the ZLC's lower-arc nature helps to keep the ball low when putting some zip on a short service return.

Short game was hard for me. It's a bouncy blade, and with hard eurojap rubber it's a handful for my level. I popped a lot of pushes and service returns up, especially with the R47. I'm used to more forgiving blades and would need to make adjustments.

Overall

This is a well-made blade, with a premium feel. It's fast and capable of very destructive play, without being uncontrollably quick. I feel that it suits a highly-mobile, dynamic player who attacks from mid distance and has great footwork and mobility. This doesn't describe me of course - but I can picture it being a real weapon for lots of younger/faster/better players.

The "hybrid" construction is interesting, and while I was initially skeptical it does have a noticeable effect on play. And it's also a bit different to other combination blades I've used in the past, and worthy of a bit of time to describe here I think. Previously, I've used Sanwei Two-Face, Valiant Terminator, and custom builds by Levi, tt-manufaktur and Ross Leidy but all of these used different outer plies to create the combination effect (the Valiant stands alone here in having ALC/ZLC as well as an outer ply difference). This approach does the trick, but introduces a marked difference in feel/speed between the two wings. This may be what you're looking for of course, but adapting to this imbalance takes time - the contrast between the FH and BH isn't intuitive by definition. The AZX is different here, because the basic properties of the blade feel very similar - feel, speed and so on. You just get a higher arc with the ALC side. It seems to have a singular aim - support the common need of the standard, modern two-winged loop player by having a dynamic, high arc on the FH side and a more direct, lower arc on BH - while introducing a minimum of disruption to the overall balance of the blade. I presume this is what Xiom are hinting at with their notes on blade balance and being the first hybrid of this type. If so, I think it's a success! I haven't used anything quite like it before, and it's a fascinating approach.

First of all I would like to thanks TTD member hils4ever and XIOM for giving me the opportunity to test the new XIOM Jung Youngsik Ice Cream AZX blade.

Unboxing
The Ice Cream AZX comes in a beautiful purple, orange and silver presentation box which has a trapezoid shape to simulate an ice cream. On top of the box the symbol of Jung Youngsik is shaped like and arrow. It looks good and the details are held simple and clean. My first impressions when grabbing the blade I could feel the finish was smooth and the quality is in the high end of the scale. I wish though that the edges of the wings were sanded down a bit instead of having a sharp edge. The design of Ice Cream blade is very appealing as well. The color scheme from the presentation box is to find on the handle of the blade where the black color is used as background, the purple color on the Zephylium Carbon side (ZLC) and orange color on the Arylate Carbon side. On the blade faces there is some marketing text and JYS signature is on the ALC side of the blade. Near the wings the Xiom has printed an A and a Z to distinguish the sides of the blade. The logos on the handle looks great and are made metal. It is getting more common that the companies are letting go of the plastic lens which has been used for decades. In the bottom of the handle the a logo saying Ice Cream, XIOM and JTTAA. It has a bit of 3D effect when looking at it from an angle. I don’t know if it’s for checking genuity of the blade, but if not, it is a nice detail.

The sample I got is FL and has these specs:
Composition: Koto-ALC-Limba-Kiri-Limba-ZLC-Koto
Weight: 85g
Thickness: 5.7mm
Handle size: 100x23x33mm Width at narrow flared section is 25mm
Head size: 157x150mm

I wanted to do a frequency test, but forgot to do it before gluing the rubbers on. I will add it later.

Comparing the handle with a Viscaria the Ice Cream seems to be a bit smaller than Vis, but not as small as some newer DHS blades.

Test setup will be 2 times Xiom Omega 7 Pro max on each side ending up a total weight at 183g which isn’t that bad considering having two max rubbers glued on blade. Review is based on 5 training sessions of approx. 2 hours each.

Drive
When hitting the ball I could immediate feel the blade and the combination with Omega 7 Pro was fast. The balance of the blade is towards the center which I like more than head heavy setups. Hitting with the A side the vibration is similar to other ALC blades which is a bit numb, but still you have the slight feeling of the ball. I try to twiddle the racket and play with the Z side. Here there was a noticeable difference! Playing with the Z side the vibrations was a lot and it felt more soft than when playing with the A side. The sweet spot of the blade is large making it very consistent to play with.

Loop
When looping with the A side the impression of power and using the high gear of the O7P the full potential of the Ice Cream blade was pretty obvious. I had to adjust a bit coming from with a chinese rubber with flatterer trajectory, but when the adjustments were made it was easy to land the balls on the table. The A side has a medium-high arc and medium throw and the dwell was very good even with a 47.5deg rubber. The O7P is making a nice click sound like the good speed glue era. My impression of the Z side when looping was that is was a bit slower and the dwell was greater than playing the A side. The throw of the Z side is low-medium and the arc of the ball was medium. Engaging the ZLC layer I could the extra dwell compared to the ALC, but this is without compromising the balance of the blade.

Block
The passive game with the Ice Cream blade together with O7M it excels good control and consistency from the large sweet spot. In terms of sides I prefer blocking with the Z side in BH and A side in FH. Still when punching a bit or being active on the incoming balls you still have the feeling of having good control.

Short/Flick
In the short game you need to have a good touch to be able to keep the 2nd ball short due to bouncy rubbers and the outer koto. The O7P are not so sensitive to incoming spin as e.g. T05 which is good if you struggle with spin when receiving the ball. Flicking with Z side in BH is preferable for me, The dwell from the blade using the low gear of the O7P making the easy to flick. You still need to be active on the ball. Flicking with the A side in FH you only need to use a short stroke because the catapult effect from the rubber and the hard koto. Again here if you have a good technique it is easy to flick with less effort.

Conclusion
The Xiom Jung Youngsik Ice Cream AZX is a high end signature blade which comes at a price of 159.90 EUR which is pretty similar to other composite blades from Butterfly. The blade is really nice and the durability is good. I like the overall design of the whole package, but for my personal preference the blade is a bit too fast. I would rate it on par with the Viscaria in terms of speed and maybe a little faster. The blade is definitely for experienced players that like to play from close to mid distance from the table. It is a looping blade which is great in the blocking game. Flicks using the ZLC side is noticeably one of the strong attributes of the blade. If you are the type of player that builds you game with some of the aspects above I would recommend this blade to this person.

I was sceptical in the beginning as I have played a XIOM Vega Tour blade for quite some time and none of the newer XIOM blade were good enought to replace it. The special Hinoki feel combined with special core and ZLC was the perfect combination for me.

From the specs the IceCream AZX is nothing even comparable to Vega Tour with Koto outerply and ALC composite. Nevertheless XIOM was generous to have me play this blade and so I gave it a try. Glad I did, because IceCream blade is really outstanding.

ALC side has very crisp and noticable feedback, which helped me to improve my FH loops, as I can very well notice if I hit the ball more towards the center or outer of the blade. The loop arc is more noticable compared to my Vega Tour, even with rubbers that have a lower throw like the new Omega 7 rubbers. But most noticable is the very high precision that I can now put into my shots. Placement is much easier with this blade.
Ball contact is very short, but still looping backspin is working well.

ZLC side has less feedback (compareble with Vega Tour), but still enough to be noticable. The throw is a bit flater than with ALC, which requires a bit different technique when looping against backspin.

I did play ALC on FH (with various rubbers like Vega Pro, Omega 7 Pro and Omega 7 Tour). I can only anticipate that IceCream was designed for O7x rubbers (or the otherway round) but the O7x rubbers work extremly well with the blade. I first had the O7P on the blade and it already worked perfectly, but lately changed to O7T and this now the combination I stick with.

On BH (ZLC) the O7T was bit to much speed and I had less control in blocking, but with O7P it works as before.

I didn't mention spin so far, but the blade supports very well in generating spin. I didn't miss anything compared to my already spinny Vega Tour blade. I really like the higher precision of the IceCream, which makes even risky placement (loops to wide FH or parallel blocks towards the edge of the table) much easier.

The IceCream Blade definitly is a blade for people that do regular systematic practicing. It will be hard to manage this blade and the O7x rubbers with only 1-2 hours fun table tennis a week. The blade has a higher speed than Vega Tour, but as the the Vega Tour it is very linear in playing.
No bouncy effect that kicks in when you don't need it. If you hit the ball hard, the shot is blazzing fast, if you only touch the ball, it is short and slow. I really like this behaviour.

A small comment on the handle. XIOM really did change the handle for the better. The handle now fits perfectly in my hand and the cross over to the blade itself is not as edgy as with the Feel Series.

Professional equipement developed by XIOM... I really like it. I found a very worthy replacement for my Vega Tour (which I will keep because of it special material combination)

I admit I am one of those people that is very much curious why in the world did Xiom name this and the AZXi as Ice Cream blades. I specifically ask Xiom about this and I was a bit laughing on their honest answer. The reason why they call these blades as ice cream blades is that it is like ice cream wherein remote places or villages do not have them. The AZX and AZXi are not the first composite blades in the market but Xiom claims that they are the first successful composite hybrid blades. According them, other existing blades of similar construction seem to be not balanced. One thing I am thankful about Xiom is that they listen to their consumers. People who have used the Feel series blades are saying that they like the older design for the neck and wing part of the blade more than the new design. Guess what, I told Xiom about this and they have shown that they have listened to the request. With the AZX, the neck and wing part was reduced and not as wide as the Feel series blades. It is actually closer to the older blades like that of the Stradivarius. I measured the flared handle at this base where it is the widest and the cross sectional size is 25mm x 33.5mm using an electronic caliper. Just as an added info on the blade, the orange side is the ALC side with a letter "A" mark on it while the ZLC side is the one with the purple sie with a letter "Z".

This is a very fast blade. People might think the ALC side is the slower compared to pure carbon blades but it is not. I saw their pdf files about the blade and they describe it as the ALC being the faster side while the ZLC is the slower side. I immediately asked them why they rated it that way and I got an answer where they said they made the ALC layer thicker to balance the blade. I used several rubbers in the test - DHS Hurricane 3, Omega V Europe and Omega VII Pro . I tested this for 3 days and I was careful to use the same rubber on each side with the exception of the Hurricane 3 just to test the characteristic of each side. Speedwise the ALC side is very bouncy. it is almost as bouncy as the ZLC side. I can surely say that the Viscaria is much slower than the ALC version of the AZX. At first, I tested the Hurricane 3 first because it is my preferred rubber in the forehand. I was surprised that it was really bouncy. If I compare it to the Timo Boll Spirit, the AZX is faster though the stiffness is less comapred to the TBS blade. The ZLC side is more or less identical to the ZJK ZLC blade. I cannot fully say which of the 2 is faster. Anyway, I have observed the ALC side during drills and matchplay that the throw when looping the ball is is a bit high. Honestly I had to do some adjustments with the throw and the long trajectory of the ALC side. The AZX is a very fast blade. I had to step back middle distance from the table because even with a Hurricane 3, some of my loops are going off the table. It took me a few rounds to adjust the the H3 and the AZX combo. The ZLC side on the other hand is the opposite of what I was expecting. I thought this was the faster side but it was very controllable despite the great amount of speed. The ZLC side has a bit lower throw compared to the ALC. I would say the throw is about low to medium arc in the table with long trajectory. If comparing the 2 sides it would be approximately like this - ALC high throw, long trajectory, ZLC low throw, long trajectory. Both sides are almost as fast but differ in the throw. Both sides are powerful even far from the table and not just at the middle distance from the table. When I used the H3 on the ZLC side I think it was more controllable for me because of the lower throw. I also adjusted easily with the ZLC side. DO not get me wrong, I like the feel of the ALC better than the ZLC and this is a personal preference but because ALC is much thicker in this case, I preferred the ZLC side.

I changed the rubber to Omega V Europe which is a medium soft rubber and also the Omega VII Pro which is a thick sponge, thin topsheet rubber. I could see the purpose of this blade the moment I used German rubbers on it. It is an all out attacking blade whether you are into ALC or ZLC, it does not matter. Both sides of the hybrid blade will give you more than enough power for your offensive shots far and middle distance from the table. It is just a question whether you would want a high arc or low arc long trajectory. The Omega VII Pro actually works well with both sides with the ZLC side more controllable. When you are hitting through the sponge using the Omega VII Pro, you would love the feeling of hitting the ball all the way deep into the sponge. The O7P gives you a good amount of control when using it in the Ice Cream blade when used on each side. I would not call this a looping blade because despite producing heavy amount of spin, it favors more of a direct hitting and counter looping strokes. Control is more of a personal issue wherein it needs to be used by a player who practices a lot and this should be used and highly recommended for advanced level type of players. It is a fast blade that rewards you with powerful shots that enables you to finish the point quickly any distance from the table. For blocking, it favors more of the active or punch blocks than passive blocks.

The blade concept is quite new to me and I was a bit confused with the ball felling at first because even if one side is different from the other, it produces some sort of a hybrid feel by both composite layers. You would need a bit of time to have the feel sink into your senses and then that is the time you can truly appreciate the blade. Is it a good blade? Yes not just good, it is awesome. Imagine that you can have the performance of ZJK ALC/Viscaria on one side and ZJK ZLC on the other side. All you need to do is just decide which side will be your forehand or backhand.